Aide: Clintons, Mandela connected

Nelson Mandela’s relationship with the Clinton family reflected a genuine friendship, stemming from their personalities and the Clintons’ intellect, according to a new insider account.

“It’s quite noticeable how broad their view was of the world, how informed they all are — all three of them — about all details of the very small countries around the world,” Zelda la Grange, the woman who served as Mandela’s private secretary from 1997 until his death, said in an interview about her new memoir, “Good Morning, Mr. Mandela.”

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La Grange, a white Afrikaner who grew up hearing Mandela called a “terrorist,” joined Nelson Mandela’s staff as a typist in 1994 and became his private secretary in 1997, staying with Mandela until his death in 2013. La Grange traveled with him to foreign countries and met everyone from world leaders to celebrities. This week, the author is touring different media outlets and venues to promote her book, including hosting a reading at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington on Thursday.

In her book, la Grange recalled then-president Bill Clinton’s trip to South Africa during the most trying time of his presidency: at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But Mandela, she recalled, still stood by him.

“President Mandela welcomed President Clinton with open arms, admitted the personal difficulties he was facing with regards to the Lewinsky saga, but reassured President Clinton that he still respected him and had faith in his ability to lead,” she wrote. “He had a way to put things in perspective of one’s humanity.”

La Grange met Bill and Hillary Clinton multiple times, both when traveling to the United States with Mandela and when the Clintons came to South Africa. She described Hillary Clinton’s connection to Mandela as “humble.”

“She was always very respectful and very warm — it was a very humble relationship, ” la Grange said. “Mr. Mandela would also inquire about Chelsea and what Chelsea was studying, what she’s doing with her studies. It was a very homey kind of relationship.”

While la Grange didn’t get to interact with President Barack Obama in the same was as the Clintons because Mandela’s health was failing by the time Obama took office, his speech at Mandela’s funeral has stuck with her.

“In my humble opinion, it was his Martin Luther King speech,” she said of the speech. “I think the warmth, and the way he articulated the values of Nelson Mandela and what we aspire to, almost to console the South African public.”

And as for that infamous selfie — when Obama snapped a picture of himself with Danish prime minister Helle Thornig-Schmidt and British prime minister David Cameron, spawning tabloid headlines around the globe — — la Grange shrugged it off.

“I did see it in the news,” she said. “But I think we were so overwhelmed by emotion, we didn’t really make much of it.”

In a passage timely for today, la Grange’s book chronicles Mandela’s 1999 journey to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and then back to Washington to discuss a potential path to peace with then-president Clinton.

Mandela thought a Middle East peace would be achievable under certain conditions, she said: Israel would be recognized within its borders, Palestine would have an independent state, and each side would trust the appointed negotiators to make peace.

“If you look at current events, those conditions that Mr. Mandela put — they could still pay off in the Middle East, but it’s a very complex situation,” she said. “The tension is so deep right now that it’s going to be difficult to get those conditions.”

Many in the current debate over Israel and Palestine hold up apartheid South Africa as an example of what is — or is not — happening in the region. La Grange said she sees some parallels but cautioned that they were too different to draw a direct comparison.

“I hope for the Middle East there’s a leader who will make the right decisions,” she said. “We had the leadership of Nelson Mandela, and that’s why we succeeded.

“Good Morning, Mr. Mandela,” was published on June 24 by The Penguin Group.